Thursday, October 27, 2011

One Girl In: a Spooky Place

Cross-posted from Wildlife Promise:

Halloween is a spooky time of year and the Halloween blog post for Wildlife-Friendly DMV is no exception. The post shares the story of Leslie Sturges, a Northern Virginia bat expert –yes bats!—who is battling another spooky topic: white-nose syndrome.

In 2010, Sturges launched Save Lucy the Little Brown Bat campaign in an effort to make white-nose accessible to kids and “empower [them] to conserve North American bats.”

Here’s the link: http://bit.ly/teJ5yr.  The article also includes great pictures and a sound bite of a bat echo-locating.

Suggested Tweet: A Truly Scary #Halloween Story: Bats Are In Trouble; How Kids, Parents Can Help http://bit.ly/teJ5yr @NWF #DMV

Enjoy and Happy Halloween! Mb

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

[Pictures] One girl in a "batty" place

My Halloween blog post for work (out October 27) features the story of Leslie Sturges, a Northern Virginia (NOVA) bat expert who started the non-profit Save Lucy the Little Brown Bat in March 2010.  The Save Lucy Campaign educates and empowers youth to help save North American bats from white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease that has devastated bats all over the Northeast and Eastern United States.

Here are some pictures; some of them I could not fit in the blog and they're just too cute to not share! Blog URL to follow.  Enjoy, Mb

 Jorge, a Hoary bat, was very curious of the camera.

 Hello!

So sweet! 

A Red bat. 

 Mooch, a Big Brown bat, having a meal worm for snack time.

 Say Cheese? :-)

 Feet!

Leslie in the flight cage behind her
house where young bats learn to fly.

All photos property of MABlevins/NWF, 2011 Copyright Reserved 

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

One girl in the "wild"

Things have gotten pretty wild since I've moved to DC.  I call it "the most powerful playground you'll ever play in"... others say they aren't sure how I deal with so many politicians on a day-to-day basis.

My answer: I write about cute, fuzzy animals like turtles :)

I have started a new blog series with my work that I would like to share: it's called Wildlife-Friendly DMV (District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia). The goal of this blog is to connect wildlife enthusiast in DMV to local wildlife and the National Wildlife Federation (where I work), while also sharing the stories of people in our region who speak up for wildlife.

The first post features NWF's very own headquarters in Reston, Virginia!

Here’s the link: Wildlife-Friendly DMV, post 1 "10 Wildest Things Happening in National Wildlife Federation's Backyard"
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Suggested tweet: We're “wild” @NWF: 10 WILDEST things happening in NWF headquarters' backyard http://bit.ly/DMV_10wildesthappenings #DMV
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'Cause at the end of the day, life is "wild" no matter what...
Enjoy, Mb :)

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

One girl at the Today Show

Last Thursday, June 23, I found myself in a new place: behind the scenes at the Today Show.  Please view my blog post for photos, video, along with the candid-- and somewhat chaotic-- tale of my adventure.

Blog post on Wildlife Promise (my work blog):  http://blog.nwf.org/wildlifepromise/2011/06/wild-animals-camping-and-justin-bieber-behind-the-scenes-with-nwf-at-the-today-show/

I hope that you enjoy!

For sharing with your networks:
Suggested Tweet: Wild Animals, Camping and @justinbieber: Behind the Scenes with NWF at the Today Show. http://bit.ly/kgM6lJ @NWF @todayshow

Saturday, April 9, 2011

One girl realizing many a things

The misconception that I've always had about writing for an audience is that writing must have this deep, underlying purpose or otherwise people won't read it.  And then over the past three months, I've realized that statement is not only not correct, but it is a hampering on my imagination.

What people want is questionable but that isn't the purpose of this post.  I can never please everyone (nor am I interested in trying).  Although, I can please myself.  It seems like the simplest statement now that I see it written out on my own screen.  It has taken me since my last post to learn this.  Better late than never, I suppose.

A good friend of mine told me once that the key to becoming a writer is to never stop writing.  Just don't ever stop he told me one day, driving in the car after a lunch date.  I've been writing all these months (at both my jobs), but what I haven't been doing is writing for myself.

I've made all these excuses: I'm too busy, my new job, I'm too tired from commuting, i don't have anything to write about... the list goes on and on.  I don't know why I stopped.  Life is a hectic place that moves faster as the days move forward-- I was told that they would.  And I'm realizing now that I had better not neglect the one friend that has never left me-- my writing hands.

And something I would like to take a moment to note: A special someone in my life began mentioning that I had stopped writing for me and that I should begin again.  Because I'm always "right," I would never admit that this person's constant persistence and encouragement is one of the reasons I'm sitting down now and starting again.  Thank you.

Moving forward, the only thing I can promise about my writing is that it will exist.  Now whatever shape and/or form it takes, is up to me.  Something else to note: this is the most invigorating thought I've had in years. 

beso (kiss), M